Mt. Silver

"Hey..." Winter's voice was nearly muffled by the absurd amounts of wind and snow flurrying around him as he talked to his best companion, "Remember when we went through the Ice Path and I nearly died because I took my jacket off?"

"Squir..." came Lucky's acknowledgment from within a bundle of clothes he was wrapped in on the trainer's back.

"Even with our protection, I think this is worse."

Not exactly the most positive words to come out of the trainer's mouth, but a bit of realism here and there was acceptable. Especially when he was nearing the peak of one of the most treacherous mountain climbs in all of Ruula. It felt like the wind could literally blow him off the mountainside and yet there was little air to breathe at all. An odd contradiction to one of the most insane weather conditions he'd been through to date. He'd even been here before and never experienced antagonistic climate the way this snow and wind was.

Then again, the last time he'd been here, he never went to the peak.

They'd already done their reminiscing over the past couple of days on their wacky and wild adventure in the lower parts of Mount Silver. It was where Glist evolved to join his brother and sister in their Eevolved state (yes, the two "e"s are necessary). It was where they found Rio, who challenged all of them to a battle of might on a small cliff side and eventually joined their team out of respect for their prowess. It was where they all saved and befriended one of the most powerful allies any one human being could have...a Legendary Bird he lovingly nicknamed Arty. And now, nearing the peak of the mountain...

It would be where one of the most important battles of his life would go down.

The current Champion of the Region knew what lied ahead...somewhat anyway. Everything Titania knew about this trainer she relayed to Winter, but that wasn't a lot of information to go off of. A Pikachu with Brick Break and a Charizard with Belly Drum were the only two opponents he knew this particular individual would fight against him with. Other than that...she could have anything. And in this climate with his current team, that made him anxious. Now more so than ever now that he was actually making the climb to the top.

But he had come prepared. He currently wore two parkas, gloves, snow pants, snow boots, thermal underwear...anything he could get off the Champion's budget. And that budget was remarkably high. He'd even bought some specialty clothing for Lucky since his companion didn't have a PokeBall to retreat to, nor did he want one. He had his team set-up, trying to build the type spread as much as he could. And for Lucky in particular, he had an item he'd never thought about using before...

"Still got that thing I gave ya, buddy?" Winter felt the need to call back to the Squirtle over the howling winds, even though he was right on his back.

"Squir!" Lucky gave a confirmation.

"Okay, good! We're just about there!"

And just as he said that, there they were. He never thought he'd ever see the day when he'd stumble upon someone standing in the snow waiting for them, especially on a mountain this violent. But here she was, the metallic looking girl with the wide brimmed hat staring off, her back turned away from Winter. Every event from the past year had been leading to this moment and he was still slightly in awe that it finally arrived. There she was...the prize waiting to be won.

And here he was...ready to avenge the Iron Maiden.

"Hey!" came Winter's initial shout.

For a very, very long moment naught but the wind faced Winter's call. The solemn quiet of the mountain was its own reward for a weary traveler desperate to collect themselves after a difficult journey, but that wasn't why Winter was here. He was here in search of a supposedly powerful robot, a seemingly mythical force of science that had managed to take down a champion. And to his credit...

He'd come to the right place.

The first thing Winter would see was a pair of golden lights gently bobbing before him. They pierced through the veil of snow, two symmetrical little orbs dancing rhythmically in the weather. As the lights drew nearer, a pair of dimly glowing eyes would be revealed to be behind them. These eyes, in turn, gave way to what might appear to be a young girl. However, her skin had a metallic texture to it and her joints were segmented, not unlike a ball jointed doll. This was no human, if not because of her looks than because she was effortlessly enduring the onslaught of freezing weather in naught but a mini skirt and what appeared to be a modest tank top. An ambiguous little smirk graced her face as she descended the mountain, her eyes locked on Winter's.

" . . . "

...But the robot offered no reply. That look on her face, the way she looked straight at Winter without quite acknowledging him--as if she were looking straight through him. It said everything she needed to. That was the gaze of a killer, ...or perhaps just any given robot. Either way, it lacked a certain humanity that might be unnerving if one weren't used to being looked at that way by other humans. In spite of her obvious inhumanities, she had a certain personality to her. The way she moved, the way she gingerly shielded her eyes with one of her hands. To what purpose had one designed a robot like this, and how had they accomplished something this... close to humanity?

It didn't seem like the young robot girl intended to explain herself. She stopped about 20 feet from Winter, leaving plenty of feet between them, and placed her hands on her hips almost expectantly, her pinky finger teasing one of the tiny pokeballs attached to her waist. None of them were primed just yet, but the gesture still teased at what she desired. Straight to the point, it seemed.

Winter couldn't help but shudder...not because of the wind but because of the stare he was receiving from the challenger. He'd been warned that she would cut straight to business, but experiencing it firsthand was a different animal. It appeared that she had a calculated method of going about it. There was no smile for it was a smirk. There was no friendly stare waiting for him but these shimmering eyes that gave him a sense of dread. No words to go off of, but body language to express her desire to get things started already. And still she held a uniquity in her appearance. Winter already knew she wasn't human, but what actually was she? Where had she come from? And why was she here, imposing her will against Champions and the like?

To what gain did it give her?

"Alright..." Winter prodded over the wind, trying to provoke a response, "You, uh...you gonna say anything?"

Nothing.

"Alright then," Winter's stance widened slightly as he drew a PokeBall from his own belt, his eyes flashing with energy, "Then I can talk. Lady...thing...I'm here to challenge you to a Pokemon Battle. A 6v6 contest to see who between us is the better trainer!"

"Squirrrr-tle!" Lucky took up his own stance behind his trainer.

As customary to these formal duels he'd been trainer about for four years, he'd let the android-like girl showcase her first Pokemon before he brought out his. It had been awhile since he was the challenger, but he hadn't forgotten the rules. The question remained, however...was she going to abide by them?

DIN-01 lolled her head to one side in confusion in response to Winter's challenge. Without any words to compliment her body language it wasn't clear what exactly it was about what he'd said to elicit that reaction but, sure enough, she plucked a pokeball from her waist and primed it in preparation to engage Winter. She seemed to consider the pokemon he had sent out for a moment, quietly rolling the enlarged ball out of her palm and onto the ground. From it, a pikachu emerged. The heart shaped curvature at the end of her tail identified her as being female, but otherwise, there wasn't much to observe about the pokemon! That is to say, there was nothing strange about it, at least. The mouse pokemon shuddered in the cold, but quickly shook off her discomfort by shifting onto all fours into a battle-ready position and beginning to bounce rather energetically.

...And then, DIN-01's move came. It came without a command, or any real warning really. DIN-01's pikachu abruptly shot across the snow, using its light weight and decisive speed to cross the icy battlefield without ever really succumbing to any difficulty moving about. And then--she stopped. DIN-01's pikachu was baiting out a defensive action on Winter's part, and by all accounts one was warranted. Yet, Pikachu's attack never came. The pokemon abruptly made a U-turn just before committing to slamming into Winter's squirtle and quickly darted around the pokmon's side away from it. This was known as Fake Out. Pikachu then began running circles around the battlefield, picking up an enormous amount of speed as she literally began running circles around Lucky. An experienced trainer might recognize this as the move agility. As Pikachu did this, her increasingly egregious speed began to kick up snow behind her, creating a little wall of thick icy mist around Lucky that hampered his visibility, allowing her to duck in and out of the wall very so often as she ran to keep either Lucky or Winter from pinning down where exactly she was.

The wind picks up, carrying a mournful wail with it as it settles over the battlfield.

By some horrific turn of fate, DIN-01 had become hostile before Winter even sent out his first pokemon. It seemed like she'd confused Lucky for his active choice. Boy, chivalry really didn't pay these days huh. Not only that, but she was being a bit reckless in targeting him. She could very easily hit Winter himself if he weren't careful! Albeit, Pikachu did make a ... small effort to avoid him. He was unlikely to actually get hit unless he got in the way.

"Woah!" Winter cried out and held up his arms when the sprinting Pikachu beelined directly towards him, only to watch it barely miss his right leg, graze past Lucky, and sharply turn around, heading back towards the space in between them. Lucky fumbled in shock from the glancing blow, nearly falling over in the snow. They both recognized the Fake Out implemented, but it had happened so fast and the snowy terrain around them was so intense, they both nearly missed it.

"Ya okay, buddy?" Winter called back to his friend. The Squirtle nodded with a grunt.

"Okay! Just stay back for now!" the acting Champion turned back to the action where the Pikachu was running frantically in the snow, a flurry of the cold condensation kicking up behind it. The "girl" meanwhile had a very...abrasive look on her face. And by abrasive, he meant completely full of hatred. Her eyes were glistening unnaturally as she showed no signs of holding back or keeping this fight fair. All tricks in the book were going to be thrown his way and he had to be ready for them. Every single one.

Winter found more determination in the challenge ahead of him as he picked up his first PokeBall on his belt and chucked it onto the field, "Let's do this! Come on out, Sumo!"

Amidst the dark clouds, the whipping winds, and the piling snow came a red beam, showcasing a very shiny Shuckle. The tiny turtle-esque Pokemon appeared, blue shell standing out brilliantly, making her easy for both Winter and the combatant to see. There would be no playful banter from Winter. Neither from Sumo, Lucky, or any of his team. He was going to get serious.

It was good to take advantage of the misused Fake Out and bring forth Sumo because the Pikachu's next move was Agility...and this was a golden time to strike.

"Sumo! Encore!" he called out, and the Shuckle commenced the cycle. Sumo closed her eyes, a weird pulse of energy filling the air. As such, the Pikeachu would begin to feel the uncontrollable compulsion to keep using Agility...to keep going faster and faster.

Which was alright in Winter's book.

DIN-01's smile just sort of slowly faded away as 'she' watched her pikachu begin to uncontrollably accelerate, a bigger and bigger snowstorm getting kicked up by her increasing velocity. One could just barely make out the sounds of a terrifying pikachu freaking the heck out before it all abruptly stopped. A yellow mouse could be observed flying wildly off the mountain and vanishing into the clouds.

...Oh.

Apparently, it had wound up going so fast it couldn't keep itself from flying off the small arena. DIN-01 just kind of stares in bewilderment. Huh. She'd never seen anything like that before. ...She'd also spent her admittedly very, very short life up on this lonely mountain so that perhaps wasn't saying much. After a good long moment, it became clear that she was waiting for a pikachu who wasn't coming back.

Oh.

Winter was getting ready to set up for the next two attacks to thoroughly take care of the Pikachu. But what happened next completely froze the young Champion (not in ice, just metaphorically). He could even bring words to his mouth as he watched the snowstorm in front of him, then a flash of yellow, and then...nothing. Like a magic trick, the Pikachu was gone and judging from the trajectory it had taken (from what he could gather from the yellow flash, anyway), it wasn't returning anytime soon.

"Oh..." Winter verbalized the thought both trainers were having right now, "Er...good job, Sumo! Let's keep the momentum on our side!"

He decided to keep Sumo out for the next Pokemon. The Shuckle was pretty tanky already to most attacks and if he knew the match-up wasn't favorable, he could always switch out for another team member. Now with Pikachu gone, he only knew one other Pokemon on her team...Charizard. He could use this time to figure out what cards she was playing with.

For the first time, DIN-01 looked genuinely uncomfortable. Felt genuinely uncomfortable even. She seemed to really hesitate to return her attention to the battle. Her pikachu was gone! She lost a pokemon! The gynoid looked genuinely pretty upset about that fact. Also conflicted. Maybe she wasn't programmed to deal with a situation like this, or maybe she was just genuinely conflicted on whether to go find her pikachu or continue battling. After a long moment, though, she reluctantly seemed to settle on returning her attention to Winter.

Producing another pokeball, she released a blastoise onto the field of battle! It turned its head up at Winter almost indignantly.

Winter could feel the hesitation in her stare, her surprisingly longing look over the mountain edge where they both witnessed the Pikachu plunge down. That was the second emotion he'd watched the girl express within the past minute. And he'd been expecting something cold...something emotionless...robotic even. Her attention was distracted to the well being of her Pokemon, just like any human would be.

Maybe...maybe there was another way...

"Stop! Hold on!" Winter actually stepped in front of Sumo, who was prepping herself for the next move. Despite the massive Blastoise standing in the way, he managed to look past it and into the eyes of a conflicted girl...a conflicted girl whose confliction was slowly fading.

"I think we should stop the fight for a moment!" he suggested loudly over the whistling wind, "We should go find your Pikachu! I know you're worried about her, as any trainer should be! We can continue the fight after we found her. I don't want your Pokemon dying from the cold because we were caught up in a battle!"

He stepped past the Blastoise, recalling his own Shiny Shuckle along the way as he got closer and closer to the girl. As he went, he remembered his own fight against the Dragon Tamer Lance to become the Champion...how their two ideologies clashed. If Lance had been up here, facing the girl, he would've carried on the fight, taking advantage of one less Pokemon to truly battle as he mercilessly fought on. Winter was always looking for the alternative method...one that didn't involve cold, brutal tactics or kicking another when they were down. Sure he had his concerns on being betrayed by the girl, who was showing signs of possibly being bipolar given what he'd seen from her emotional swings. But the value of life mattered more.

He just hoped she would think the same way.

Now Winter was a few feet from the girl, examining her closely. Even with uncertainty in her eyes, she looked unnatural. Her skin looked...smooth. Too smooth, even. She wasn't shivering from the gusts, nor was she flinching at the snowflakes occasionally drifting into her eyes, which looked even more synthetic up close. Her hair looked hard and her stance looked mechanic. The Champion was more scared of her now than he'd ever been before.

What was she?

But he hid the thought behind a genuinely warm smile that cut through the cold, extending a hand for her to shake, "Let's go find her together."

To truly understand someone whose body language was their only way of communication was a difficult task. It was a language full of subtleties, a language where the words frequently lost or picked up new meanings depending on the context. A language where many more complicated expressions simply didn't have words. Yet, it was not impossible to read her. One just had to be careful. She was, after all, considered to be dangerous by the authorities. There was likely a reason for that. Perhaps Winter already had his own suspicions.

A pair of brightly glowing golden eyes met Winter's. They were perhaps one of the most inhuman things about the girl's appearance just underneath the visible seams on all of her joins. They had a somewhat glassy texture over them and their irises had a very flat, milky texture to them. They looked very artificial. He was being watched, carefully so, but her blastoise made no move to stop him. In fact, it didn't even turn to face him. It simply glanced over its shoulder, waiting to see what came of this.

DIN-01, on the other hand, recoiled a bit and raised her arms to her chest when Winter held out his hand to her. If one paid attention, they could observe that the stance she was taking wasn't one that would facilitate punching or grabbing--or anything really. Rather, she was almost hugging herself as if to brace for an impact. It was a panicked response, not an aggressive one. This robot was afraid of Winter. Up close, he might just also be able to observe that one of her arms had scars on the metal where something heavy had struck her quite hard. They ended abruptly at the shoulder, where it appeared a part had been replaced. Now that they were up close and on relatively even ground, he'd also be able to pick up on just how short she was at about four feet five inches.

After a long moment of cowering before Winter, DIN-01 seemed to realize that she wasn't in imminent danger and stopped bracing herself, though her hands remained protectively wrapped around herself. She didn't seem to be able to bring herself to take his hand.

She did, however, her gaze up at Winter. Her eyes searched his for something unknown before nodding in confirmation. It seemed like she agreed to stop the battle and go searching for her pikachu.

Winter wasn't sure what to think as the smile faded from his face. There was so much stimuli heading his direction in her many actions that followed his offer. First was the way she reacted to his extending hand. It was defensive, not offensive. A lot less aggression was on the girl's face right then and a lot more apprehension. Winter could suddenly see that he dwarfed her in size by about a foot and a half. Was that...fear? Winter was surprised to learn that she could even carry such an emotion, given what Titania had told him. But the look on her face was very real. Perhaps she was more scared of him than he was of her...

The second thing he took notice of was her arms, crossed in front of her chest. Particularly on her left arm, where he noticed the scars raking across it in an unsettling fashion. Not like it had been cut or scraped by something, but like it had been shattered by something. At this point he was pretty confident the girl he was fighting wasn't human, but he was more concerned by who or what could've delivered those scars. And why? To make her tougher? To punish her for some reason?

Why was she sitting on this mountainside in the first place?

And the third was the sense of relief flowing through his own body when she nodded in acceptance to the offer. Her hands felt hard when she gripped his own while her electronic-looking eyes seemed to be searching for something within him. She wasn't smiling, but that was okay. It was the first instance of communication between the two of them and that was a breakthrough in it of itself. Who knows...maybe he did have a new friend in disguise.

His grin returned with more life to his face as their handshake broke, "It's not a trick or anything. I promise. I'm just worried for your friend."

He began walking back to his pal on the other side of their makeshift arena, glancing up at the Blastoise who had been patiently waiting. Unlike the girl, he seemed and looked very real...which brought up more questions. How did she communicate with her Pokemon? he wondered. Was it a mind link? Was it through friendship? Or maybe her team could act out on it's own...like that Chimchar he found outside Lavender Town that one time...

These were all questions he decided to hold off on asking her for now, even though his curiosity was tugging at his patience. Instead, he explained what he rationalized as the best solution for finding her, "So if we go ahead and take a Flying-Type to the sky and begin circling the mountainside, we should find your Pikachu pretty quickly!"

"Squir squir?" What are you doing? he could see the question in Lucky's eyes as Winter leaned down, inviting the Squirtle to hop onto his back.

"I don't think a Champion...well, actually no one should risk the lives of the Pokemon they encounter," he replied to his buddy, "Even those they oppose."

Lucky shrugged and glanced back at the girl. Winter reached into his parka in an effort to bring out something. A few seconds later, his clasped hand unfolded in front of her to show the whistle that one of his more intriguing friends had given him...a bird that could help him out in a pinch should he need it.

"Lemme call Arty," he said to her as he began to examine their surroundings to make sure this was a suitable place for landing, "You might wanna take a step back," he added in warning.

And then he blew the whistle. A soft, yet piercing note echoed through the snow flurries around them, even cutting through the wind. It was elegant in tone...not too harsh for ears. Winter held up a hand and began raising fingers.

One...two...three...

He stopped blowing after the third second had passed, sliding the whistle back into the spot on his concealed neck that he pulled it from. It was only a few seconds later than they would begin to hear the flapping of wings. Soft at first, but growing louder and louder with each beat. Winter smiled as he knew Arty had listened...

The Articuno suddenly appeared from the gray clouds, shimmering a bright, icy blue that seemed to encapsulate all the attention around them. The wind seemed to stop, as if frozen to the presence of the Legendary Bird. The snow even stopped falling, giving the girl full view of the incredible Pokemon. The Articuno paused for a moment, surveying the environment before landing next to Winter. It fluttered it's wings in a fluid and stable manner before glancing at Winter with an expression. You called?

"Hey Arty," Winter could actually hear himself talk for once as his tone was soft and slightly pleading, "My...friend here lost her Pokemon. It fell off this side of the cliff." He pointed to the direction he'd seen the blur move as he went on, "Any way I could convince you into helping us search for it? It's a Pikachu, so it shouldn't be too hard to find. Yellow on white, right?"

The Articuno snorted in amusement as it nodded it's head and turned around, inviting the two of them to climb on.

"Thanks, Arty," Winter replied genuinely as he slid onto her back in a practiced manner. Even at his height, it was near impossible to get distracted by the notable size difference between the Champion and the Articuno. She was a big bird.

Winter turned around and offered her a hand up, remembering how hesitant she had been the first time, "It's okay. Arty's not gonna hurt you. I'm not gonna hurt you. Just take my hand and I'll help you up." He continued to show signs of pleasant and soft conversation, the smile on his face getting more vivid by the second.

DIN-01 reluctantly seemed to abandon her plans for battle and invest a little more trust in Winter, returning her blastoise and quietly watching Winter as they waited. She seemed to be studying him closely with a curious expression on her face. What she was looking for wasn't clear, nor was it obvious whether she found whatever it was. However, soon it would be time to take Winter's hand again and the rather short gynoid accepted. She was a bit heavier than a human ought to be, but given she was also quite small this wasn't saying very much. Her synthetic skin didn't give as much as a real person's either, giving her an involuntarily firm feeling grip.

Perhaps a good question would be where to seat her. Would Winter put her where he could keep his eyes on her, or in back?

Regardless, they had a lot of ground to cover.

Winter let the girl position herself behind him, not only for the sake of trust he was willing to show, bur for the sake of her safety, so that she could grab onto something more handy if things got rocky. Besides...Lucky had the front seat. Lucky always had the front seat.

The Articuno grunted at the sudden weight change on her back. The girl, despite looking smaller and frailer than the Champion did, actually weighed more than him. But it wasn't something the legendary bird couldn't handle as she readjusted herself and got ready for takeoff.

"You're gonna wanna hold on tight..." Winter warned as he glanced towards the endless view of clouds in front of him, "Okay Arty! We're ready!"

Fwoooooosh! Even a singular flap of the wings proved to be mighty as the Articuno lifted off, taking to the skies. His stomach lurched at the force, but he was used to that by now as he simply held on. The wind that rushed across his face was surprisingly breezy, as if he wasn't flying at all but rather, taking a walk along the coast. In fact, it seemed like all the harsh weather conditions were put on hold when they entered a certain range of the Articuno, making the ride much more pleasant.

Articuno began to descend, little by little, circling the mountain on each pass. Winter kept his eyes peeled on the mountain, which was awe-inspiring from this perspective. Every cut of rock, every path of travel, and every sheer cliff or snowy bank was visible. It gave the mountain so much detail in comparison to the ground perspective most people had. It was a visual experience for the Champion, who'd never flown this close to Mount Silver.

"Do you speak?" Winter asked so suddenly, glancing back towards the girl. He was going to try and at least get a few answers to some questions he had about her.

Suddenly, a swirling vortex appears to the east. You can see something appear in that direction.

Leanne (Leavanny) has arrived, coming from Indigo Gate House.

In a cacophony of obliteration, everything to the north vanishes.

Leanne (Leavanny) has left the area, heading east into Indigo Gate House.